Sir, - The news that the Muslim community in Cork is seeking to buy St Nicholas's Church (Southern Report, August 8th) reminded me of a Sunday service which I attended in that church some 28 years ago. At the time I was a member of the choir of St Fin Barre's Cathedral, a mere stone's throw away from St Nicholas's (which, by the way, still had a robed but somewhat "venerable" choir), but I was attending an earlier service that Sunday.
The committee which had been set up to rationalise the number of church buildings needed for public worship in the Dioceses of Cork, Cloyne and Ross had earmarked St Nicholas's for closure, as the congregation could easily attend St Fin Barre's. There was fierce resistance from the congregation of St Nicholas's, and on the particular Sunday in question I heard a discussion on the subject in the porch as the congregation was leaving after the service.
One distinguished church person of the parish, Mr Johnnie Hornibrook, remarked that "St Nicholas will close over my dead body!"
I understand that it did, indeed, not close until after his death, but how happy he would be now that it may be once again used for worship of the Creator, albeit under a different dispensation. "In my father's house, there are many mansions". - Yours, etc.,
Mike Lawlor, Old Chiswick Yard, Pumping Station Road, London W4.